Postgame: Philadelphia

Robert Warzycha said so many interesting things after today's 1-1 draw with Philadelphia that it was hard to know where to start dissecting it all.

The bottom line was this: the Crew has to stop having sluggish starts when playing at home.

Robert Warzycha said so many interesting things after today's 1-1 draw with Philadelphia that it was hard to know where to start dissecting it all.

The bottom line was this: the Crew has to stop having sluggish starts when playing at home.

"I told the guys at halftime: 'We're playing very tough road games and we won because we did something well,' " Warzycha said. "I said, 'Why don't we do something well here at home where it's much easier to play?' it's much easier to play in front of your fans. I think they responded very well in the second half and we pushed for the goal."

I asked Warzycha if there was anything he saw during training this week that led him to believe a performance like this could be coming, and his response was that if he had he would not have put that starting unit on the field.

I asked goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum if the Union did anything the Crew did not expect.

"Not really," he said. "Everything is on us. Usually our success depends on our work rate and our ability to feel each other and our failures are the same, usually. Sometimes you can tip your hat to them and say good strike or that's a good buildup and a good goal, but clearly that wasn't the case. We have to do better."

I asked midfielder Eddie Gaven if he had any idea why the team had a sluggish start.

"I'm not really quite sure why it was," he said. "We just didn't seem to have a lot of energy early on and they were kind of taking the game to us. We weren't able to hold the ball well either and we kept losing balls in really bad areas of the field, and when you do that it really, really kills you. I think we were probably lucky to only be down 1-0 when we came in at halftime."

Although Warzycha changed things up in the second half (more on that later), the coach credited the team's energy level more than any tactical changes for the Crew's second-half spark.

"Maybe that's why sometimes we're not successful because we're giving up the first goal and that's what's happened in the previous years," he said. "Even the year we won the championship, we'd give a goal, we'd chase and we'd get the goals. I want to change something. Last year we had a sign that we could change something and actually be aggressive and score the first goal and start the game the right way. We have to look at practice and maybe the bye week threw us off a little bit because we were in good form when we played against D.C."

The changesI'll admit that I was surprised to see Dominic Oduro earn the start ahead of Jairo Arrieta. After scoring nine goals in 18 games last season, I did not think Arrieta would lose his grip on a starting spot due to a national-team call-up.

Arrieta said he learned Friday he would not be starting, and he looked disappointed when talking to the media afterward. The same could be said for most players, actually – the locker room was essentially a ghost town once reporters were allowed access.

"Obviously I only want to play," Arrieta said through an interpreter. "I watched the first half on the bench, supporting the team from the bench and trying to help them in any way I could. In the second half I came in and tried to work hard and help the team to score goals and win the game. I tried to do my best for the best of the team."

Oduro did not stick around for interviews, although the team did provide a few quotes from the night's goal-scorer. Warzycha said his performance at D.C. earned him the right to stay in the lineup as a starting forward, but what this also means is that Ben Speas has played well enough to keep his name into the starting lineup. If not, Oduro could have gone back to playing on the wing and Arrieta could have reclaimed his spot up top.

"I came in with the idea of a lot of movement up front and try to create problems for the defenders," Arrieta said. "Also we were more aggressive and more offensive. I tried to help the team in any way I could. I'm happy with the performance of the team in the second half, but one point at home is not what we want."

Warzycha said he replaced Agustin Viana with Arrieta because he felt some players were taking the fact that they had started the first four games for granted.

"That might be a motivating talk," Gruenebaum said. "If he doesn't feel certain players are performing, that's his job and he'll change things up and we'll regroup. Whoever is on the field can get the job done. It's really on us to make that happen. All he can do is set the lineup and then it's on us from there. We have to be able to adjust on the fly and the first half I think it was lack of energy, lack of talk and we gave us a goal. You could feel it coming. Unfortunately we just have to bring it next time from the start. We can't get into the habit we had last year, the last couple of years, where we fall behind and then it wakes us up and we keep going."